Worldwide air cargo demand was up by +13% in the first two months of this year, compared with the equivalent period last year, with demand continuing to surge from Middle East & South Asia (MESA) origins, and tonnages recovering from the normal Lunar New Year (LNY) seasonal dip, analysis by WorldACD Market Data reveals.
Preliminary figures for February indicate that air cargo tonnages were up +8%, year on year (YoY), although correcting for the extra day in February this year, the first 28 days of February were still up by +4% compared with February 2023, based on the more than 450,000 weekly transactions covered by WorldACD’s data. That follows +17% higher tonnages in January, YoY, based on revised figures from WorldACD. But the variation in the timing of LNY each year – coming three weeks later this year on 10 February, compared with 22 January last year – tend to make single-month comparisons complicated in the first two months, with combined two-month comparisons usually more meaningful.
